Big Meeting, Big Challenge

Too often, we are in big meetings without the single most important tool that can guarantee meeting success. A successful meeting is one that meets the purpose and goals intended. I am talking about the kind of meeting where you end up with lots of post it notes on the wall, brainstorm lists everywhere, a large parking lot, and yet no one can say we met the purpose or that anything meaningful happened. The results are often more meetings of the full group, or subgroups to, sort through what actually happened. There is a solution to avoid this scenario. That is a meeting facilitator.

We have all done it. Facilitated a meeting that where we needed participate. The problem is that we are not neutral in this case. It is too easy to lose focus when because of information or personalities. It also doesn’t work when those you chose to include in the meeting now feels as if their participation was not valued because the meeting was led and not facilitated. On the other hand, maybe you refrained from participating as much as you need to keep your “facilitator” hat on. A facilitator will bring a neutral, objective voice to your meeting and help make sure that all participants have an equal voice and leave the meeting with a sense that their participation was valuable.

Your meeting will be more effective when the purpose and goals are clear in advance. Maybe you do not know yet, but we can help with that too. We plan the event, organize the venue and other needs, and work with meeting participants in advance to help set the stage a productive meeting. You hired the facilitator for meeting preparation. It is her primary focus and not something to fit in between other work. A well-prepared, marketed, and equipped meeting will show importance to meeting participants and give them the signal that preparation and timely attendance is required. We have a vast array of tools in our toolkit that to move the meeting in the direction needed to meet your goals.

Consider hiring a facilitator for your next meeting. The time saved in meeting your goals quickly will pay for the cost of the facilitator.

Professional Project Services Facilitation Services

Project Kickoff

Lessons Learned

Requirements Elicitation

Stakeholder Education

Team Building

Strategic Planning Session

Root cause analysis and corrective action planning

Rates:

$500 – 1/2 day

$800 – Full Day

$750 – Per Day for more than 1 day

Travel costs including overnight stay if more than 70 miles from Olympia, WA